Cambodia - Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.
Only a weekend trip, but an amazing experience. Both ancient and modern Cambodia give you pause to stop and think. Read the journal entry also...
This is just the gate into the city itself. There were remnant walls and a moat, with gates on each of the four sides of the city.
Banyon
This temple was somewhat tumbled down, but the faces on the towers were still clear.
Stones that had fallen were carefully stacked in the courtyard prior to being reassembled. A huge 3D jigsaw.
One of the better preserved parts of the temple.
Characteristic of all of Angkor were the stone carvings. There were hundreds of metres of them, several metres high. They usually recorded historical events, or represented religious legends.
This temple was falling down earlier last century, and the French partially disassembled it to secure the foundations. After the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot) took power all the Cambodians who had worked on the project were slaughtered, and the records destroyed. Once the area became safe again (only in the last ten years) the archiologists have returned and started to piece together all the bits.
Below is one of many fields of carefully laid out stones. The stones are numbered, but the records are gone. Bit by bit they are being sorted out and reassembled.
Jungle Monastry
One of the overgrown monasteries was too overwhelmed by large trees to be restored properly. Instead the jungle was thinned, and a whole new experience was opened up for tourists.
This building looks normal, but the right hand end has collapsed for some reason. As the buildings are made without any mortar the stones, when they fall, just look like kids' blocks.
One of the more spectactular trees that has grown on top of the buildings. This tree is perhaps 400 years old, while the buildings are over a thousand years old. We were impressed.
The roof of this building has collapsed fairly recently, leaving the tree roots in mid air. From where Amanda is standing it looks like a huge snake.
The original tree has been overwhelmed by a strangler fig, killing it. The doorway has featured in a number of films, including a recent Laura Croft movie.
Similarly this courtyard has also found fame in movies. Remarkably I was able to find a moment when the crowds were all somewhere else. This will be rarer and rarer over the next few years as the tourism grows.
Angkor Wat
The grand temple of Angkor Wat is sensational. The moat surrounding it is huge, with a substantial causeway leading to the outer walls.
This impressive structure is merely an entry gate through the outer walls. Sadly this building has been pockmarked with bullet holes from the civil war.
Through the gate you get the first clear look at the main temple with its 5 towers. Every aspect of its design is steeped in significance relating to the ancient Hindu legends.
The outer cloisters are protecting more intricate carvings that tell historic as well as religious stories. There are hundreds of metres of freizes, all patiently carved into the rock. Again all this structure is held together by gravity alone.
In the innner sanctum there are large courtyards, whose purpose is not clear. They are not as deep as the ones in the outer buildings, but still seem more like pools than parade grounds.
Getting up to the top of the central tower was seriously scary. The steps are at a 60 degree angle, and quite intimidating to climb. They are even worse to climb down!
From the central tower looking back along the causeway to the outer walls.
After our thunderstorm: the outer cloisters. The roof is made of massive stone blocks, not tiles.
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